The Labyrinth of His Heart
by WintersStar
Summary: Its been seven long years, and many things have changed. The Labyrinth has become a dark place, and its King has changed. He is no longer the fun King everyone knew, but a cold shell of his former self. But Sarah has grown, and she is not as childish as she once was. And she now knows where her heart is leading her. Hopefully its not to late to save the Goblin King.


The Labyrinth of his Heart

Chapter 1

The Goblin castle was silent - it had been for quite some time. What was usually a rambunctious and lively place had now become a dreary wasteland. Where the castle and surrounding city had once been sunny, colorful, and full of mischievous Goblins, it had now become a grey, dreary place. There was no laughter or joking to be heard. In fact, one could believe from the state of things that there had never been any lighthearted fun ever.

The Labyrinth itself had become more malicious than it was before. The once great walls and unusual, beautiful vegetation had begun to crumble, and die. The Labyrinth no longer seemed to be a place filled with wonder and dreams but a place of nightmares and newfound dangers that would never have been thought to be there before. The Bog of Eternal Stench had now become a blessing compared to other places the decaying Labyrinth had created for itself.

Watching over the ruins of what once used to be a great kingdom was a King feared by all; the King of Goblins - a man that possessed great power - known as Jareth, revered and respected, who had won the hearts of all the women who laid eyes upon him. A king born to the rulers of the entire Underground. A king who allowed a mortal girl to steal his heart, and all the life he had left in him when she beat his Labyrinth.

A king...

And nothing more.

Not even enough to win the heart of a mortal girl.

But why did he care? _It's not as if he had any real feelings for her anyway..._

He only wanted her brother - to do his duty - what has always been his duty: take the child wished away, and supply it with a new home in the fae world - a home where it would be loved and wanted.

 _Something Jareth had always wanted to feel…_

No! He had never felt anything for her! But then why - at every waking moment - was he thinking of her? It had been seven years since she had beat his Labyrinth. Jareth didn't know why he had been keeping track of those seven years - why he was counting each passing minute. He could bend time, the rules of time didn't apply to him, and seven years for a fae was a blink of an eye. He was immortal, time was a trivial thing to him, easily broken.

 _So why did it feel like an eternity each passing day he was without her?_ He had spent his entire life alone and unloved, it hadn't bothered him before...

So why now?

These questions circulated Jareth's mind every day, and it bothered him. He didn't have time to think about some mortal girl! She had probably forgotten the entire time she was here in the Underground. He was not blind to his negligence; perched in his tower window, he watched his vast Labyrinth and the surrounding lands fall slowly into ruin. He remembered when he used to sit on the window sill at early dawn - before the light of day broke the spell that the moon cast every night upon the land - a peaceful midnight blue, with a shimmer of the moon's silver light dancing in the ripples of the many lakes and ponds, clouds floating gently across the brightening sky.

All that had changed.

What was once beautiful sand colored stone, lush green grass, and fruit trees that rippled gently in the wind was now crumbling grey stone and dead vegetation. Shadows of their former glory. The once peaceful spell that the moon would weave out of its silvery blues had now become a dark blackness - one that would frighten even the bravest of warriors. Everything had become harsh and cruel. _But he couldn't bring himself to care._..He couldn't bring himself to care about anything lately. And he was so tired. So tired of caring and not caring at the same time - tired of thinking about a girl that he didn't even like. That's what he kept telling himself anyway... But it was quite clear to one dwarf in particular what really plagued Jareth.

After the events with Sarah and the Labyrinth, Jareth had, for some unknown reason, allowed Hoggle to tend to the gardens at the castle. It was something Hoggle had always wanted to do - and though he wouldn't admit it, he really did love gardening. However much he disliked Jareth, Hoggle could tell that something weighed heavily on him. Hoggle knew that he wasn't very smart, but he was no fool either, and even though he disliked the Goblin King, he did pity him in a way. No matter how hard the king tried to deny it - no matter how hard he fought to tell himself he never cared - Hoggle knew he was lying to himself and that the loss of Sarah was killing him.

XxxxXxxxX

Sarah was silent. Silent and alone and afraid. She had just lost her fifth job in the past seven years. Every day she was more worried about how she was going to survive; in the first place, she had barely made enough to scrape together enough money to rent her crummy one bedroom apartment. She didn't even make enough to eat properly, often forgoing meals - the ones she did have nothing more than cheap ramen or hamburgers. To say that her life had been hard was an understatement. Sarah knew that for her first 14 years of life she was a spoiled brat - she had so much, never stopping to look around her and appreciate the things she had been given. But at once all of that had changed. Seven long years ago, she had ventured into the Labyrinth. She had to to rescue her baby brother from the Goblin King - even if it was her fault that he needed rescuing in the first place. But after all that, years after she had brought Toby home - when she finally decided to grow up - her father died. It was sudden and unexpected. It was a regular clear sunny day, he was driving home from work. Someone hadn't been paying attention then, and now because of their carelessness, her father was gone. Taken from her - abandoning her with her stepmother, who didn't like Sarah one bit.

With her father gone, there was nothing stopping her stepmother from turning Sarah's life into a living hell. No longer was Sarah able to enjoy life, gone were all her toys and childish indulgences - now all she had was her clothing and a bed. She was fed, but not ever allowed to sit with them at the table. She was kept busy with cleaning the house and watching Toby as his mother went out. Much to Sarah's chagrin, Toby took after his mother as he grew older. He didn't treat Sarah as a sister, but rather as a servant or a slave. _This_ … Sarah thought _This is what I risked everything for, to save you Toby, only to be treated no better than your servant?_ She shed many tears at the beginning of her sentence, longing for the love she knew her father always had for her - even if she was then too stubborn to see it. As time wore on, Sarah didn't want to give them the satisfaction of her tears - even if they didn't see it for themselves. It was this determination that had gotten her through the three years he had to endure living within the walls that had once been her home, but now was a prison. She was cast out the moment she turned 18, as her stepmother no longer was responsible for her care. _Good riddance anyway_...Sarah didn't need them anyway. She didn't need anyone!

But that was a lie.

And as much as she tried to deny it, she knew it.

Try as she might, Sarah's thoughts always led back to one man. One devilish, mischievous, arrogant, confident, man. One king. The Goblin King. All those years ago she didn't understand what he said.c She understood the words, yes, but not their hidden and double meanings. Not the emotion laced in his velvety voice. She hadn't listened to him then, she hadn't cared, and now, now she had to live with that reminder. She had to live with the knowledge that she had thrown his beard heart at his feet and then proceeded to stomp upon it. As Sarah grew up, she realized how cruel she had been.

And she wished she could just take it all back.

She wished with all her soul...

xxx

But Jareth had stopped granting wishes. He had stopped years ago. He no longer saw the point to grant the wishes of others when when he finally made one of his own, it was refused. But this also caused his kingdom to fall into further ruin. The longer that Jareth ignored his duties, the longer he ignored his responsibilities, the more impatient the other fae beings became. The other high court members were now feeling insulted at his utter lack of motivation, being seen in their eyes as insults, and were now wanting to cast him out of the high court.

But they didn't dare to. They all knew that he was far too powerful to risk his anger and wrath. That was part of the reason they had assigned him to being King of the Goblins. The Goblins were simpletons, nothing more, and by placing Jareth as their king, he would be saddled with their antics. Having to constantly maintain order lest the Goblins destroy everything with their pranks and thoughtlessness. But he was also given this title for a very important reason. Because of his power being so great, he was able to travel between the Aboveground and the Underground with as much ease as walking through an open threshold.

This was invaluable for the fae beings, for the mortals wished away their unwanted children to the Goblin King, and to only him. He was the only one that could claim the children, bring them to the Underground, and give them to families that wanted them. Eventually the mortal children would turn fae, and by doing this, the fae population, small as it is, could continue to slowly grow. While people no longer wished away children as much as they used to, no longer really believing in such things as the Goblin King, but it was even less common for fae women to give birth. Immortals the fae were, they did not die often, unless killed by another, and so, nature has seen to it that they fae are unable to bring children into the world, least the fae overpopulate. But it did happen occasionally, and those lucky enough to have a child were envied.

Jareth's parents had been one such lucky couple. Only, they never wanted to have a child. They never wanted to have Jareth. They had been kind to him, he never wanted for anything, except for the one thing they couldn't give him; their love. He hadn't really minded, though, he didn't need it, he was perfectly fine on his own. But he didn't really understand how much he wanted it until he met her. Until he met Sarah.

Her big bright green doe eyes made him speechless. Her long inky black hair that always caught in the wind made him want to reach out and feel the silken strands slip through his fingers. But what had really drawn him in was her defiance of him. Normally people would submit to him, carry out whatever task or order he gave. He was not accustomed to having people fight back. And he found he rather liked it. The fire within her eyes, the stubbornness in her voice, it intrigued him. Pulled him in.

And that was his mistake. He had allowed for himself to become wrapped up with the idea that he would be able to change her mind about him. That he could make her see him in a different light and wish to remain in the Underground with him. He had allowed himself to hope.

And he was disappointed.

Jareth didn't want to admit to himself that he had wanted something that for so long had been denied to him. He wanted Sarah's love. He wanted to be the only one to have Sarah's love, and he wanted her to need him. He wanted to feel loved and needed by Sarah.

And that caused Jareth to run from her, he had never needed someone before, he didn't need anyone he kept telling himself, he had never needed someone, and he would never need someone. He always told himself these empty lies.

XxxxXxxxX

Sarah looked around the bare walls of her small cramped apartment. In a few days, if she didn't find a job soon, she would be evicted. She had never liked or wanted to spend time in the horrid place. But now with the fear of being kicked out to the streets, she couldn't bare to leave it. But she would have to if she didn't get on her feet and start hunting for a job, any job, she didn't care what it was, she needed the money. It was times like these when Sarah really wished she could see her friends again. Hoggle, Ludo, Sir Didymus, they could always make her happy, make her smile and laugh. These times were becoming more and more frequent, and now, it was all the time that Sarah wished this. Over the past seven years Sarah had been falling deeper and deeper into sadness, succumbing to the loneliness that had become her life. And she knew that she missed one Goblin King too.

Over the past seven years that Sarah had to think over her life and her choices, she revisited her memories of what Jareth had said to her. And now she fully understood the depth of his words, not only his offer on the surface, but the hidden emotions that could be heard in his voice, and seen within his mismatched eyes. It was that look that haunted Sarah in her dreams, the look of someone wanting to be loved, and willing to sacrifice whatever it took to attain that love. And now that Sarah understood that feeling too. She felt all the worse for shoving it back in his face.

As sleep finally overcame Sarah late that night, wrapped up in all the blankets she had, the thin things that she had been able to afford which allowed for her to skip out on paying for heat, which she couldn't afford anyways, she made one little wish...

XxxxXxxxX

Hoggle was tending to his garden late into the night. Yes his garden, it might be that Kings property, but Hoggle was the only one that paid much mind to the upkeep of it, he was the only one that cared about it, even if he would never admit to it. He was just finishing up for now, putting his well used tools away. He was having a great deal of difficulty in keeping the small area alive. Everything else in the Labyrinth was now dead, and Hoggle was damned if he was going to give up his garden without a fight. But it was proving to be much more difficult as time wore on. There was only so much Hoggle could do for the garden after all.

But as he finished packing up his tools and was about to carry them back to his home, he heard a calling, one that he hadn't heard in years. Someone was calling for him, and he immediately knew who that someone was. Without hesitation, Hoggle abandoned his tools and vanished from the garden,

xxx

Hoggle appeared in a dark, cramped room. It was fairly bare, with one mass in the corner that looked like a small mattress with a lump on top. By the sound of it, Sarah was asleep, her breathing was even, and she hadn't reacted to his arrival. Knowing that he couldn't stay for too long, Hoggle went over to her sleeping form and gently nudged her awake.

"Sarah" he said, "Sarah wake up." And slowly she did. And while still in a sleep ridden haze, Sarah almost screamed. Almost, the scream died in her throat however, as a small hand clasped her mouth shut in an attempt to keep her quiet.

"Shh Sarah, it's only me, it's Hoggle." He said quickly in an attempt to relieve her fright. And it seemed to do the trick, as he released his hold of her, allowing her to move to turn on a dim light. Her frightened look turned to one of recognition, then to happiness of seeing her old friend, and then confusion as to why he was there.

"Hoggle, it is so good to see you!" Sarah exclaimed, all but jumping to her feet to give the dwarf a big hug. "And please don't misunderstand, but why are you here?"

Hoggle returned her hug, albeit grudgingly. It wasn't that he wasn't happy to see her, he was, but it had been so long, and she hadn't once called on him, not once. Some friend she had turned out to be. "Sarah, you wished for me to come, don't you remember?" Sarah stared off in thought for a moment, trying to recall when she had wished for Hoggle, because she didn't remember ever doing so. In fact, she had remembered that she wouldn't wish for them to come, it was just too painful at times to be reminded of the friends that she had left behind.

But then it dawned on her, and Hoggle saw the realization light up in her green eyes. Sarah, in the midst of her exhaustion, as she was about to fall unconscious, had wished in her foggy mind that she could see Hoggle again. When she turned back to look at him however, she saw that he wasn't all too pleased with her.

"An why hasn't you called on me before now?" Hoggle asked gruffly, attempting to hide the hurt in his voice. "Some friend you turned out to be."

At this Sarah felt immensely guilty, again. "Oh Hoggle, believe me I wanted to, but, to call on you and Ludo and Sir Didymus became so painful, it was a reminder of the friends that I had to leave behind, I could only see you for short whiles. And now, I need to work as much as I can to afford this place, and now that I've lost my job I have no way of hoping to keep it." Sarah hadn't realized that while explaining herself to Hoggle she had started to cry until she felt Hoggle's hand upon her cheek wiping away the tears. He had instantly forgiven her, realizing that the time for her had not been easy.

"But it is so good to see you again, tell me, how is everything?" Sarah asked, recomposing herself and whipping away the last of the tears.

But at this Hoggle's face grew dark, and Sarah knew something was wrong. "Well you see Sarah," began Hoggle "Much has changed, the Labyrinth ain't what it used to be. When you left all those years ago, when you beat that Jareth, somethin' happened, and nothin's been the same since. In fact, I've been wanting to do something bout it for a while, but I hadn't had any idea until now." At this Sarah became confused.

"I don't understand Hoggle, what's happened?"

"Its that Jareth, normally I wouldn't care about that rat, but now... its as if he's just, stopped. When you left something in him...broke. I ain't ever seen him this way before." Hoggle attempted to explain.

"Sarah, you need to come back to the Underground." Hoggle said, leaving little room for Sarah to argue.

But she hadn't intended on arguing. In fact, she had been wanting to go back for quite some time now. She wasn't sure why, but Sarah felt that she needed to, that something was wrong and that she might be able to fix it. What was there for her here anyway? A stepmother and little brother that hated her, a crummy apartment that she would probably lose soon anyways? No, there was nothing for her here, and somehow, Sarah felt that she no longer belonged here anyways, that she was meant to go back to the Underground, to the Labyrinth.

Looking Hoggle square in the eye, Sarah held determination and understanding in her emerald green eyes.

"Alright Hoggle, bring me back to the Labyrinth."

A/N: Hi all, hope you enjoyed the first chapter of my very first Labyrinth story! Iv'e read many stories and I wanted to try my own hand at one. Id really live to hear what you think about it!


End file.
